Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Design Hoarders

I recently stumbled upon this article by Steven Heller on the AIGA website titled What to do With Design Stuff? Heller argues "you are more likely to be a hoarder if you are a graphic designer than not". While the article itself is quite humorous, I find something really interesting about his point. I don't know about any of you guys, but I find that I have a hard time throwing things away after I have no use for them. Not in an obsessive of unhealthy way. I think it's more that now I have a relationship with the object and understand the design thought that went into producing it. For this reason, I think things with no real value may intrinsically hold what I might call 'design value'. For example, magazines and catalogs which are largely disposable and usually have a shelf life of no more than a month or two, for some reason seem valuable to me. And this is probably due to the fact that I understand the time and energy that went into making them. But maybe it is even more than that. Maybe I feel a connection with the person who designed it. I guess what I'm really trying to say is-I'm really not sure what it is, but design is so great because it can have such a lasting impression and relationship with its audience.